Types of publications Studies and publications

The 2009 results show important advances in the functional literacy of Brazilians aged 15-64. While on the one hand everyone is celebrating the expansion of educational opportunities in recent decades, on the other there is a growing concern about the insufficient levels of learning that the indicators reveal.

In partnership with five public state schools in the east area of the city of São Paulo, Ação Educativa promoted the mobilization of school communities into the discussion about the “high school we want” and presents in this report the results of this collective effort.

Paulo Montenegro Institute and Ação Educativa – partners in the creation and implementation of the Indicador de Alfabetismo Funcional (Inaf) (Functional Literacy Indicator) – organized the present report to present the analyses and interpretations of the results of the Brazilian adult population’s literacy levels measurement, held in the second half of 2007.

According to information from the Indicador de Alfabetismo Funcional (Inaf) (Functional Literacy Indicator), from 2001 to 2005 the increase in schooling still does not guarantee positive results in terms of functional literacy. The 5-year Inaf Balance analyzes in a deep and contextualized way the work carried out over the years of research.

In this edition, besides the general situation and the characterization of the different levels of literacy, Inaf emphasizes results related to the young population, in order to verify the scope of recent advances in the Brazilian school system, as well as the potentialities and needs of this segment.

With a focus on the mathematical skills of the population, the 4th Inaf (National Indicator of Functional Literacy) found that 2% of the Brazilian population was in a situation of mathematical illiteracy, that is, they did not master simple skills such as reading the price of products in a store, writing a telephone number that was dictated to them, count money, calculate change or even consult a calendar.

The 3rd Inaf (National Indicator of Functional Literacy) showed that 8% of Brazilians were in absolute illiteracy situation, and 30% had a very low level of ability: they were able to identify simple information in short texts with a single sentence, an ad or a magazine cover, for example.

The 2nd Inaf (National Indicator of Functional Literacy) showed that the Brazilian was better in calculating than in Portuguese.

On December 13, 2001, Paulo Montenegro Institute and Ação Educativa presented the first data from the Indicador Nacional de Alfabetismo Funcional (National Indicator of Functional Literacy).